Cardano is no longer the world’s third largest cryptocurrency.
- Cardano, the third largest cryptocurrency in the market, has lost its crown.
- Tether, a stablecoin, has now taken its place.
- The difference between them has fluctuated from as little as between $70 million to $3 billion.
Cardano's ADA coin climbed 150 percent in August to become the world's third most valuable cryptocurrency by market capitalization. However, it is triumph seems to have been short-lived.
While the rest of the crypto market struggled to find its footing, Tether, the world's largest stablecoin, knocked the decentralised blockchain platform off its throne on September 29.
As of 9:00 a.m. Indian Standard Time (IST), the disparity between the two had grown to $3 billion, but it has fallen to just $1 billion as Cardano attempts to retake its crown.
The top five cryptocurrencies in world:
Tether, a stablecoin, has supplanted Cardano as the world's third largest cryptocurrency.
| Cryptocurrency | Market Capitalisation |
| Bitcoin | $812.69 billion? |
| Ethereum | ?$249.97 billion |
| Tether | ?$68.4 billion |
| Cardano | ?$67.37 billion |
| Binance Coin | $63.4 billion |
This isn't the first setback Cardano has experienced this month. As recently as September 2, ADA's market capitalization was poised to surpass $100 billion, riding the coattails of its Alonzo Hard Fork update. Some even hoped it would reach the same heights as Ethereum. However, at an all-time high of $98.91 billion, the platform fell short of its triple-digit objective.
This time, even the platform's plethora of new collaborations, revealed just two days ago, were insufficient to protect Cardano from the strains of the global crypto market, which has entered a depression.
Cardano is losing ground despite the announcement of a new stablecoin, partnerships, a new DApp store, and further funding
The Cardano Summit, which took place from September 25 to September 26, saw the launch of Djed, the blockchain's new stablecoin, in conjunction with finance firm COTI.
"It's an autonomous bank that buys and sells stablecoins at a variety of prices..."
In a whitepaper published in August 2021, Cardano creator Charles Hoskinson outlines Djed.
Input Output, the company behind Cardano, has recently announced two new partnerships. One is with the Oracle protocol Chainlink, and the other is with DISH Network, a Fortune 500 corporation situated in the United States.
Developers on the Cardano blockchain will also be able to show off their decentralised applications (DApps) via the Plutus dAppStore, a "trusted and democratised platform for developers to publish their DApps without experiencing censorship."
The Plutus dApp Store will be where users can download Cardano-powered applications, similar to how Google has the Play Store for Android apps and Apple has the App Store.
And, if that wasn't enough, the cryptocurrency's commercial and venture capital arm, Emrugo, announced $100 million in new funds to help the Cardano ecosystem grow.
Why does market capitalisation matter?
The market capitalization of a cryptocurrency is one of the most common ways for investors to determine whether a coin is safe to buy in comparison to its peers - it signals its potential for growth.
The greater a digital asset's market capitalization, the more dominant it is thought to be in the worldwide market. The more powerful it becomes, the more likely it is to withstand the ebbs and flows of time in the unpredictable world of cryptocurrencies.
Not just Cardano, but all cryptocurrencies have had a rollercoaster month in September
The crypto market has been combating China's propagation of fear, doubt, and uncertainty since last week (FUD). The country reaffirmed its anti-crypto position, pledging to ban all crypto-related activity within its borders.
China's declarations were initially dismissed as a fear tactic by the crypto market. Bigwig firms, on the other hand, had a different attitude.
Binance and Huobi, two of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, have stated that new registrations from Chinese users would no longer be accepted. Sparkpool, the world's second largest Ethereum mining pool, will be shutting down operations in less than 24 hours. Alibaba, China's e-commerce behemoth, has also announced that it will no longer sell mining equipment.
On September 30, the crypto market appears to be regaining its footing as it returns to the green. Cardano is currently trading at $2.11, up 1.95 percent, although it has yet to reclaim third place.
